Archive for June, 2009

While the BioWare/Star Wars/gay characters kerfuffle has largely blown over, it did have the effect of ferreting out any gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or remotely curious characters in the extensive Star Wars cannon. Pixel Poet sent me a fantastic bit he dug up from the recent Penny Arcade post, which mentions the first married gay couple in the Star Wars universe, between male humans Goran Beviin and Medrit in Karen Traviss’ novel Sacrifice. (Penny Arcade also did a fantastic comic on the subject, the first panel of which is shown above.)

Sacrifice is the fifth novel in the Legacy of the Force series, and Traviss has supplemented it with a FAQ specifically addressing the gay couple in her novel (emphasis mine, or rather Pixel’s):

The gay Mandos – like the rest of the Mandalorian cast – are in the series because I think the Star Wars galaxy, with millions of worlds and species, is probably more diverse than just a regular vanilla diet of straight, good-looking, able-bodied white folk with red hair and emerald eyes or whatever. So I decided it was time SW had its first gay characters, because it was dumb for such a rich universe like that to be so narrow and unreal.And I say that as a straight white able-bodied woman.

Because whatever your personal prejudices, we live in a diverse world, and people you don’t happen to like because of colour or orientation or age or gender are not going to vanish because you don’t accept them. I don’t like slave-owners and people who think decapitating another being is casual work, but I still write about them, because they’re there in the SW universe.

If you didn’t spot that Goran and Medrit are queer – well, maybe you were only looking for pink armour, limp wrists, and mincing walks, not hard-as-nails mercenaries and armoursmiths. But none of the gay men I know are mincing pink-clad queens, so…I wrote what I saw around me. Real people who just happen to prefer their own gender.

It’s worth noting that while Traviss describes the couple as married, they are not acknowledged as an actual married couple in canon source. But Beviin and Medrit certainly know a lot about what each other wears beneath their hot, sweaty Mando armor.

Holostar will star Dash and Leebo from Shadows of the Empire!!!
June 2011 – Paperback: Untitled(Holostar) by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, featuring a promising holostar – a rags to riches story set against the backdrop of the early days of the Rebellion.”

What the heck! Fimling will not be in Australia but in the Czech Republic?!? What?– First – The Screen Australia website has removed Star Wars from its upcoming production report.– Second – this quote from Lucasfilm Ltd. and McCallum:“The Lucasfilm Ltd. production of Red Tails is in full swing, and producers George Lucas and Rick McCallum are already considering a second project to shoot in the Czech Republic…
…Lucas and McCallum previously filmed several episodes of The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones in the Czech Republic and were eager to return for Red Tails. “We have been consistently impressed with the country’s talented film professionals, the high quality of the local craftsmanship and the beauty of the Czech Republic’s widely varied locations,” McCallum said.Lucasfilm would like to bring a third production to the Czech Republic in January 2010 — a new property in the iconic Stars Wars franchise, made for TV. The $150m production would last four to seven years.”– Third – This from ScreenDaily.com:
“Lucas denied previous reports that he had decided to film the Star Wars TV series in Australia. He said if he brought the production to the Czech Republic, it would last four to seven years, creating up to 700 jobs.
“[Czech] politicians should remember that it’s not just film productions they’re losing: We also pay for hotels, locations, cars and other services. As much as 70 percent of the budget stays in the country where we shoot,” Lucas said.”
Now what I hope is that there are some politicians in the Czech Republic that are being jerks and Lucas is playing hard ball with them. Not that I care where they make it. It’s that I have some Star Wars friends in Australia and none in Czech Republic.
Found at TFN
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Return To Tatooine?
TheNational.ae has a very interesting article about Tunisia and a possible return to Tatooine in the Live-Action TV Series? Here is a piece of the article with some interesting information.
The surprise for us, though, was that we found it (Mos Espa) bustling with activity. A number of labourers were renovating, repainting and building new buildings. Ironically, the effort to build these alien structures was done in a very human way; one man applied plaster with his bare hands, others sat and smoked in the shade of an alien hall.
One worker who spoke English, Farouk Ben Ibrahim, came forward to explain. Renovations began back in December, he said, after an Italian film producer contracted locals. “He gives us money, and we fix it,” Ibrahim said. “He said there is another part of Star Wars filming here. In the summer, maybe.”
If true, no one would be more excited than fans of the series, and that includes Amr bin Amr, a local who has stood guard over the set since 1997. “George Lucas wore a fox mask so he could play a part in the film,” Amr said. “This is my responsibility,” he said, waving his cane at the movie set façades. “I hope they come back, so we can make money.”
Link: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090214…/142095088/1041[/url]
Found at Galactic Voyage

Twelve Years in the Making?

Our mole aka "Woort" reveals the true story of how LucasFilms has been planning the Star Wars Live Action Series since they began to clean up the Original Trilogy with digital tweaks. Woort tells us how, bit by bit, the development of the New Trilogy was also getting things ready for the Television Show. Read all about it here!

Sex In Sci Fi

Who is the sexiest chick in Sci Fi? Who is screwing the damsel in distress? From the incestuous three way of Empire Strikes Back to the slash fiction world of Spock and Kirk, explore the kinky side of superhero sex!